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Chapter twenty-eight. The Hangrum Incident |
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observation post at Khangnam |
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Khangnam commanded no route, covered no ford. It was, on the ground, as remote as ever. But far out beyond it on (199) the Silchar plain one could see a raw, red oblong with a pale strip down the centre - the big new airfield at Kumbhirgram. Aircraft had been added to the excitements of life. Daily they cut through the Barail passes, sometimes finding a safe and straight one such as the Nengte gap, sometimes lifting the thatch on Namkia's morung at Impoi and sometimes skimming the Laisong garden fence. Sometimes they lost themselves altogether and we received a message through the Haflong police directing us to " search for an aircraft ". The directions given were so inadequate, the information so poor and the effects so disruptive on the main network of Watch and Ward that a special set-up was called for. From the hill just above Khangnam one could command not only Kumbhirgram but almost all the face of the south Barail, so Khangnam became an observation-post and search-party base. |
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The camp stood on the ridge beyond the village. From it too one looked both ways - south into the heat, north into a swooping green gulf with the mounting spires of the Barail behind it. To reach the village, one went along the ridge between dusty rocks, and down over an outcrop into the broad street with its two big morungs facing one another. |
